


Refraction

by Iyrsiiea, PastaFiend



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Gen, Modern Girl in Thedas, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 01:50:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13730574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iyrsiiea/pseuds/Iyrsiiea, https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastaFiend/pseuds/PastaFiend
Summary: Two mirrors, linking two worlds that should never have met, are found by a pair of young women. A turn of fate led to them passing through the glass, and they are irrevocably changed in the process. On the other side laid a world they had only known in stories.A world that was far more treacherous than they could have imagined.





	Refraction

**Author's Note:**

> Refraction: noun re·frac·tion \ ri-ˈfrak-shən \  
> The action of distorting an image by viewing through a medium.
> 
>  
> 
> This style of line break indicates that the POV character has changed:  
>  \---()---  
> The letter inside of the parentheses is the first letter of the first name of the character whose perspective is going to be shown next.
> 
>  
> 
> We hope you enjoy the story.

**_\---(E)---_ **

_Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch._

“Hey, Blues.”

The pencil paused and hovered over the paper. I peered over the edge of my drawing pad. Rich Carter stood below me in front of the ledge I was casually propped along. His mop of dirty blonde hair rolled down his cheeks, muddy eyes squinting through the sunrays to stare up at me.

My mouth twitched at the nickname he used. I hadn’t heard it in a year, which was the last time I saw him. With the drawing utensil in one hand I continued the sketching. Briefly, I lifted my free fingers in a silly salute and greeted him, “yo.”

“I come all this way and all I get is a half-arsed ‘ _yo_ ’?” In the corner of my eye, his bony white hands darted up, lean arms pulling himself up the wall. His voice was slightly strained, due to the strength needed to lift his weight. “Nice, I’m only your _best friend_.”

“So nobody important.” Flicking my gaze up, I watched him struggle, a teasing smile curved at my lips. “Does the damsel in distress need a hand?”

I’d always been better at climbing than he had. Did it all the time as a kid, though I’ve recently been lacking. The strength in my arms had wavered since then. _I need to become active again._

“I- I’ll handle this!” He snapped, grunting. “For the sake of my manhood- I’ve got this-! Fu-!”

Before the profanity could be uttered, he slipped and a fleshy thud sounded. Feeling mild amusement build up in my chest, I looked forward to see him sprawled on the pavement, arms outspread. “Are you alright there, Cinderella?”

He groaned and flashed me his middle finger. I snorted and closed my book, wrapping the leather clasp around it, “if it’s really that much trouble to you _I’ll_ come _down_ to _you_.”

“Man… hood,” he muttered, along with some gibberish.

I rolled my eyes.

I shoved the sketchpad into my satchel, before pushing myself off the wall. The landing was ungraceful. I bent my knees with the fall, almost toppling over. Baring the boy a cheery smile, I grabbed his offered arm, pulling to get him on his feet. Rich brushed himself off, sending me a reluctant look of thanks.

“What was that, about handling your manhood?” I drawled with a quirk of my eyebrow, hand resting on my hip. His appreciative expression faded into a grimace, his cheeks tinting pink.

“Fight me, short arse,” he retaliated off handedly, tone light hearted.

“You know I’ve never been in a fight,” I entertained the picture of me attempting to sumo slam him into the ground. “You’d snap me like a twig…” I scanned his lanky form, “even though you _look like one_ ,” I smiled.

My friend pulled a scrunched face, as if affronted by the off-handed insult. “Why are you waiting outside, anyway?” Rich swiftly changed the topic and gestured to the side, a shot of confusion flickering across his features. “It’s warmer in the tent.”

“Too warm.” I excused, swatting my hand.

The tent was bright white with yellow linings, stretched to the navy sky. Trailing around the roof trimmings were fairy lights, suspended down a few inches. There was a wide hall of space for people to buy their entry, separated by railings into singular rows. There were ticket booths in the front and a few security guards standing on either side of them, staring down anyone who dared start trouble. If that wasn’t enough, I spied golden painted gates to stop just anyone from wandering in. When I first arrived, I found it was so massive I had to stop at a particular distance to even see another section of the tent.

The circus was in town, or _in the great city of London_ in this case.

Before Rich had appeared- ten minutes late mind you- I had already bought our tickets on my phone online and situated myself on the wall nearby to sketch as a way to kill some time.

Rich dipped his head, tapping the side of my temple with a finger. I sent him a confused glance. “Ready to go in?”

We started toward the line of people.

\---

“What in _god’s great golly goose_ -”

While looking for Rich’s familiar mess of hair, I found myself stumbling to a lone room I’d never seen before. The room was a rotunda unlike anything I had ever seen. No props were in this place, just a simplistic cylinder. The floor was uncovered, grass spread across the ground. It didn’t look artificial and one curious brush of my fingertips told me it was real. There was a chandelier hanging from the high ceiling. The walls were plainly grey, a couple of unpacked brown boxes stacked in the side. It was incomplete, like this place wasn’t meant for customers.

A chilling breeze shivered over me and I wrapped my arms around myself. When I turned I saw a giant fucking mirror, out of nowhere, sitting there underneath the dim lighting of the chandelier. It looked strikingly familiar. I glanced around uncertainly before slowly my eyes trailed up. _It’s so tall_. I moved backwards so I could look at it properly. It was towering over me. The arch was shimmering gold and had an owl carved into it, it’s wings stretching outward. As I walked further toward it, the coppered frame glinted. A sense of mild deja vu and a heavy confusion crept down the back of my spine the longer I analysed it. _Where did this come from? Is this part of an act? I_ am _at a circus after all..._

It was beautiful.

A spark of curiosity lifted my arm, bringing my fingers along the bronze borders. A blinding flash startled me. “What the…!” My outburst trailed off in shock, “...hell…?”

It was suddenly _glowing_. The entire fixture was gleaming in the tent, until the only thing I could see was white.

Then I fell, lunging straight into the mirror.

I tilted forward, feeling gravity increase. It harshly yanked me down, like a sudden anchor was wrapped around my foot. My palms scraped alongside the ground, stinging my knees and my arms when they roughly collided.

It was deafeningly silent.

The tendons in my arms quaked as I tentatively lifted my head.

I felt my throat constrict, lungs struggling to gather air. I ignored the numb tingling running up and down my bones, chin hitting the cold textured stone underneath me. A fog stained the air, I could clearly see I was no longer in the room but it was indecipherable to determine _where_ else I was. Strange spherical trees with twisted branches weaved into odd bowl-like shapes were littered around my surroundings, scattered about next to other mirrors similar to the one I just plummeted from.

_How-shit- holy cr- what-in absolute hell-_

Shock hit me like a lightning bolt. I frantically scrambled to my feet and twirled around, wide gaze darting to the ‘door’ that I just fell through. The entrance wasn’t brightly gleaming anymore. It looked like it had lost all source of power.

_Is this… is this an illusion?_

I circled around the object, only finding a dull back. When facing the front, I tried to walk back through the glass so I could go back, to no avail. The only thing I succeeded in doing was bumping my forehead against the glass.

“Ow.”

Rubbing the tender part of my head, I peered at the other deactivated mirrors, my throat hitched. _Am I dreaming? Did I hit my head? This is too crazy. This is insane. A person couldn’t just… teleport, and this feels way too real to be a dream._

Slanting forward I slapped my palms on the surface, desperate to get back through. Nothing happened. I put distance between myself and the mirror, swallowing the worry that simmered under the surface.

_No._

_Let me back._

I slapped my hands again, the sound making an audible clap.

_This isn’t happening. This isn’t real. Things like this don’t just happen. Magic isn’t real. This is cruel joke._

I was stuck.

_Phone._ I tapped my pockets, fishing out the rectangular device. Only twenty percent remaining, no signal. Of fucking course. I turned it off and shoved it back where I got it. _Save my battery. Find a way out._

Apprehension soon flooded through me as I quickly became aware of my solitude in an unknown place, questions swarming my brain like bees. My eyes drifted around, one of the main panicking questions piling over the others. I decided to focus on one thing at a time.

_Where, in Martha’s goddamn moldy toenail, am I?_

**_\---(S)---_ **

My footsteps echoed in the empty hallway of the museum, gaze latching on to random objects as I passed. Artwork from the second century, stone arrowheads used by cavemen, burial masks for ancient nobility. I’d seen things like these before, so they quickly lost my interest.

What _did_ hold my interest was a doorway partially hidden behind a statue. The room beyond was lit, there was no door or lock in the way and no sign telling me to keep out, so I assumed I was free to enter.

The room was small and almost completely bare, with only one noticeable exception.

_What is_ this _doing here?_ I wondered.

I had found a tall, glossy mirror. The bronze metal work done on it’s frame was beautiful, obviously made by a master. The arch featured a pair of bears reaching out to one another, with the place their paws met being the apex. Despite not having a single crack or speck of dust, it seemed very old to me.

Which only made me wonder more why it was hidden away in the back room of the museum. There wasn’t even a plaque for it.

I reached for my phone to take a picture of the strange object, but it wasn’t in my hoodie’s pockets. _Oh, right, left it in my bag. Why’d I agree to leave it with them again?_

I sighed, unsure if I’d be able to find my way back here from wherever my family had wandered off to. I took a step closer to the oddly fascinating mirror, hesitantly touching the frame.

Suddenly the glass that had been reflecting my face mere inches from me lit up, swirling with multicolored light. I jerked back, startled, inadvertently pushing the mirror sideways. I panicked and tried to keep the mirror from falling to the floor with the hand I still had on it’s frame. Instead _I_ fell into _it_.

There was a brief moment of color and vertigo. Distantly, I heard the sound of shattering glass.

And then I landed.

Fortunately my arms had managed to come up in time to keep my face from meeting the floor, but my hands and knees did not receive such a kindness. I was pretty sure I’d skinned them. Cautiously, I opened my eyes. Below me was rough-hewn stone, and when I raised my head…

Fog. Fog as far as I could see. There were shapes visible still in the haze, some of them reminiscent of the mirror I had just accidentally broken. Others looked like trees, but somehow… round?

I took a shuddering breath. The air was dry, stale, in contradiction to the fog.

_Unless the fog isn’t caused by moisture?_

Shaking, I forced myself to my feet and looked behind me.

There was a mirror standing there, exactly like the one I had fallen through, but its glass was cracked and its surface dull. I brushed my fingertips against the darkened mirror. A shard came loose at my touch, falling to the ground beside my feet.

I stared at the fragment. Something was bubbling in my mind, a half-remembered memory.

_It’s ridiculous. Completely insane._

I looked around at the metal trees and blackened mirrors surrounding me, the slightly shimmering fog. It was bizarre, utterly bizarre, and yet some whispering thought in the back of my mind told me I had seen this place before.

_No. It’s simply not possible._

I walked into the forest of metal, glass and fog, intent on finding the way out. Every motion I made felt slow, like I was in water. Every breath felt devoid of life. Every step I took revealed only more mirrors.

The fear I had been suppressing finally surfaced, and I stopped in my tracks. Breathing heavily, my hand reached up to cover my eyes.

_I’m lost. I’m lost and alone and I have no idea how to get back or how to contact my family and I think I might be…_

I fell through a _mirror_. A glowing mirror. I landed in a grey, foggy place full of other mirrors just like it. I felt slow and sluggish here, and the air was dead.

_I think I might be in the Crossroads._

**_\---(E)---_ **

_What in the world-?_

Something caught my eye.

Upon close inspection I noticed a rolled scroll laying on the grass, right next to the mirror I came through. I knelt down and unraveled it. The parchment rollers were gilded, and along the sides were eloquent designs in golden foil lining. Intrigued, I scanned the text written inside it quickly.

Only to find I couldn’t read it.

The language was completely alien, more like symbols or code than letters. As if it would help, I slanted my head with a deepening frown, turning the scroll a different angle, then upside down, then to the side. It rustled in my hands with all the brisk movements.

But nothing made the message clear as I stupidly, secretly hoped it would.

_What is this?_

I peered down at the illegible text before I rolled it back up and put it in my satchel, shaking my head. I had other matters at hand right now. _There has to be a way out of here somehow._

Trudging through the dragging mist, I looked around. Large replicates of the mirror I came through resembled graves in the gloomy terrain. They were all dark, similar to mine once I tripped into it. _Lost power?_ I guessed.

I gritted my teeth, sharply exhaling. It eased the heat snaking through my blood and a small level of calm washed over me. I couldn’t afford to let the nest of panicking thoughts pile up, it wouldn’t help.

_When I get out of here, I’m punching someone in the throat. Then I will sue the circus._

Wandering around in this hazy labyrinth made me more than a little bewildered. There was a pang in my stomach at the sight of the mysterious structures in the befuddling murk. Fixtures were in the distance, from what I could see, stone constructions. _What is this place?_

I was starting to grow frustrated.

_I’m gonna sue them and get them arrested for kidnapping and then some._

My head throbbed.

I caught a dash of movement in my peripheral.

My feet froze in place, spine stiffening. My head snapped to the side, stray locks of my hair wavered in my face. Quickly, I slammed my back against one of the nearby mirrors and peeked out.

A shadow, not clear until I squinted and stared for a few mouth-breathing moments. They turned around, scratching the back of their head, appearing to be as lost as I felt. A lump formed in my throat but I squashed it down and a spark of determination rose within me. _Another person from the circus?_

_Either that or a serial killer from Narnia._

I ignored the feelings of alarm rising in my body and boldly spun out of cover, approaching them.

“Excuse me!” I called, narrowing my eyes in a poor attempt to see through the fog.

From what I could see, they were wearing a black hoodie, jeans and hiking boots. Their curved figure told me it was a female. By the time I stood in front of the stranger, I could make out more specific features.

_Yup, that’s a girl._

Dark hair stopped short of her jaw before shrinking to a smaller height at the back, a hue of copper tinting the locks. Her face was light skinned, and large brown eyes stared at me from underneath thick eyebrows. The girl was an inch or two shorter than me. My eyes drifted over her form warily, not able to help but notice that her bust was bigger than mine.

“Excuse me, do you know how I can get out of here?” I instantly asked the moment I had drawn her attention.

She stiffened, eyes wide, when she registered my presence. There was a long pause before she finally spoke. “No… I don’t.”

“Oh,” I breathed, shoulders dropping in disappointment. _This is going to take longer than I thought it would._ “… that’s a shame.”

“How-” she stopped mid-word, then started again. “How did you get here? Did you go through an…” the girl trailed off. “...did you find a mirror?”

I tipped my head, mildly surprised by the foreign accent. _American, hm._ I quickly got over it and registered her question. I blinked at her several times. “I don’t suppose you got lost in the hall of mirrors too?”

“Hall of mirrors?” Her brow furrowed.

“The circus,” I elaborated simply, observing her lost stare before continuing, “uh, you know like, weird illusions, jumping through rings of-”

She cut me off. “I was in a museum. Not a circus. I found a… a mirror.” Her eyes had become unfocused, deep in thought.

_A museum?_

But that was like a few train trips away…

My brow quirked, and I took a wary step back, creating some distance. “...so did I, but in a circus.”

“How long ago?” She asked, refocusing on me.

“I…” A haze was swimming around in my head. I pensively squinted at the dull grey sky, slinking my thumbs through my jean belt loops. “I don’t know, like… ten or fifteen minutes ago, why?”

“Because that’s about how long I’ve been here too,” the girl stated, and in turn I swept my eyes around the eerie ghost town, the smog blocking certain views from my sight. I could only make out those strange trees and silhouetted shapes of buildings.

“Wherever here is,” I mumbled, combing a brisk hand through my hair, which was becoming a tangled mess at this point. _Mirror. Blinding light. Suddenly I’m here, it doesn’t make any sense. What kind of trick is this?_

“Uhm…” the girl hummed, eyes darting around. “I, uh… I might, _might_ ,” she stressed, “have an idea as to where we are.”

My eyebrows twitched upward, taken aback by this positive news. I perked up. “Oh? That’s great! Well, I’m all ears!”

She clasped her hands behind her back, eyes on the ground. “Well, I…” she sighed. I stared at her, a small clench of dread tightening in my gut. _Something tells me I’m not gonna like what she says._ “Trying to say it out loud makes it sound stupid. Uh... “ her eyes briefly met mine again. “Did… did you ever play any of the Dragon Age games?”

Taken aback, I carefully regarded her at the subject change. _And my friends call_ me _random_. “Uh, as much as I love the fact you have great taste in games, I really don’t see what this has to do with uh, _where we are_ , so if you could just…”

“I think we’re in the Crossroads,” she blurted out quickly.

I stilled. I vacantly looked at the girl in the eyes, seeing nothing except a flutter of anxiety. “ _Uh..._ ” my eyes goggled across at her, “ _... what?_ ”

“You remember Morrigan?” She queried. “The Eluvians? In Inquisition?”

“And the…” I was failing to see the connection without applying crazy-people-logic to it. _Is she really suggesting…?_ “...crossroads come into this _how_ , exactly?”

“You… you didn’t play Inquisition, or at least don’t remember that part…” she sighed again. “Okay, well. Most of the Eluvians lead to a sort of pocket dimension the elves made. Morrigan called it the Crossroads.” She glanced around us. “And this place… looks a lot like it.”

The longer she went on, the more my eyebrows dipped up into my hairline, features twisting with fat disbelief. I held up my hands, having heard enough. I let out a derisive scoff. _She thinks… we’re in a video game… world…?_

“Uh huh. Okay. Wait, so let me get this straight,” my mouth dropped open, but nothing came out except a few strained grunts. Taking a swift break, inhaling deeply, I tried again. “Okay, no, I’m sorry, I-I need to go. I-I have to find a way out of here.”

Swiveling on my heel, I shook my head again and walked in a random direction, rushing to get away from the _lunatic_. Eventually, my head turned and I searched for the girl only to see my swift steps had escaped her sights.

_Just wait till I tell Rich about this, he’ll be laughing at my misfortune for days._

At least I wouldn’t have to listen to patently absurd fantasies about being in a fictional world. _Probably dropped on the head when she was born._ “Ridiculous,” I muttered under my breath, chuckling to myself at her theory. _Someone has been watching too many movies._

**_\---(S)---_ **

I watched the only other person I had seen since I fell through the mirror walk away with a growing pit of regret and fear in my stomach.

_I shouldn’t have said anything. She’s right, I sounded completely fucking insane._

I looked about me again. My senses and memories told me that this place was the Crossroads, or something like it, but it was insane. Illogical.

_What the hell is wrong with me?_

Shaking slightly, I turned and walked in the opposite direction from where the girl had gone. When that direction proved to have the same sights as anywhere else I had been to in this place I stopped and sat down against the back of a mirror, sighing heavily. I almost wanted to cry.

I had no phone, no map, no directions, and the only other person I’ve found not only didn’t have answers, but now doesn’t want to talk to me.

_What am I going to do?_

**_\---(E)---_ **

Something akin to thirty minutes must have passed as I delicately trudged through the terrain, noting how gravity strangely seemed heavier here, like moisture in the fog was dragging me down more, but quickly shrugged off the thought. It was silly. It was only fog, it wouldn’t have any extra effect.

My stride was sluggish, I was growing tired and my plan to walk around until I found an exit didn’t seem to be working. I pinched the bridge of my nose, sharply exhaling in my annoyance. A pressure built in my chest, I did all I could to ignore it and delved into my thoughts.

I was stuck here.

_Stuck._

Why was it so hard to find a way out?

_Am I dreaming?_ I thought for the hundredth time, moving passed the same mirror I sauntered by about ten times already. It didn’t seem that crazy to assume so. _Maybe… maybe I have to…_ images flashed through my head, the mental picture of the original way I came here. _The mirrors._

It was crazy, perhaps that stranger’s level of nut job, but so was my arrival.

_Maybe… the others work._

The idea was stupid, but it was better than most I had. Better than absolutely nothing.

Determined, I walked up to a random mirror. My fingertips brushed along the frame, trailing my gaze over the borders. It was bland, unlike the one I first touched. It didn’t activate a faux light and bring me back as I hoped it would. Instead, it sat lifeless. No mystical feeling from it. No mysterious teleportation. I approached another one, but I only got the same result.

“Come on,” I spoke aloud, heading towards another. My tone wavered and I knocked my knuckles against the glass, “open fucking sesame.”

Nothing happened.

“Come _on_.” That bubbling feeling of panic I had been fighting was rising, harder than before.

_Stuck._

“No,” I growled, curling my hand into a fist. “Just work you piece of shit!”

_I’m stuck here._

“Just work!” I desperately shrieked.

The shattering of glass filled my ears when my foot collided with the mirror, small shards sprawling in front of me. I screamed, using my other foot to kick it again. Heat boiled inside of me. My vision stung, blurry. My throat constricted, and I gasped for calming breaths. Craning my head to the unseeable sky, I let out a long and heavy sigh, taking a moment to close my eyes. A feeling of helplessness engulfed me and I wrapped my arms around myself.

_Where the hell am I?_

For a split second, I considered what the girl said, before viciously swiping it away. Was I really possibly taking her words into account? For _this_?

_That’s crazy, Lease._

Despite my doubts, I couldn’t deny the fact there was something very wrong in the air. It rubbed me the wrong way. It felt unnatural. There was more than _Silent Hill_ ’s level of fog, and that was impressive. If there was one thing that I agreed with, it was that my bizarre meter had broken and skyrocketed into space.

Which brought more questions and the reluctant urge to seek out the girl again.

Her insane answer to my query hadn’t escaped me. I briefly wondered if she really was delusional or if she was onto something along the correct lines.

Not being able to believe the path my thoughts were taking, I found my feet snapping forward, releasing a loud groan.

**_\---(S)---_ **

I had my palms pressed against my face, trying to keep myself calm, so the first indication I had that I was not alone anymore was the sound of echoing footsteps. My head jerked up and I looked toward the sound.

It was that girl again, storming back over like she was on a mission. Her reddish curly hair bounced behind her and her blue eyes were focused on me. She seemed no worse for wear; still wearing the leather jacket, purple shirt, jean shorts and black tights I had last seen her in, her bag looped over her shoulder.

“Hi there, me again!” Her tense voice cut into the silence. “It’s not that I _may_ even slightly believe you,” she sharply interjected before I could speak, halting her steps, “but let’s say in a _completely hypothetical_ sense, you were sort of right,” she held up her hands, “not that I’m admitting anything.” Her gaze was averted from mine for a moment, scuffing her foot on the ground. “Do you, by chance, know how to get _out_ of here?”

“I…” I stood up, swallowing. Her cheeks tinged pink. “Uhm. Well.”

_She believes me now?_

_No she doesn’t,_ I reminded myself. _She’s pretending she does in case I can get her out of here._

I took a deep breath, stifling my resentment and anxiety. “If this is the Crossroads, and these,” I patted the back of the mirror I was standing beside, “are Eluvians, then I guess we would have to find one that works and use it.”

She cringed. “Not a great plan. I’ve already…” she paused, “ _checked_ a lot of them. We’ll be here for days.” She pointed my direction. “Do you have your phone by chance?”

I shook my head. “Left it behind.” _Very dumb of me, in hindsight._

Her mouth thinned, but she cleared her throat, forcing a smile. “Give me a tick,” she turned around, fishing something out the bottom of her pocket, “Of course. Still _no damn signal_.” She shoved it back into her jeans.

I wanted to make a snarky remark about getting good reception in a different dimension, but I held back.

The girl laced her fingers in her hair, slightly pulling on her scalp. “ _Urgh_ ,” she said eloquently.

My gaze drifted to the mirrors around us. “Well, if you’re still humoring me,” my tone came out slightly colder than I intended, “we should start checking these to see if we can get them to work.”

“Uh-huh.” She grumbled, already approaching a nearby mirror. Her palm pressed flat along the surface, and when nothing happened her eye twitched. “Well. This is a great plan!”

A bubble of irritation rose, but I pushed it down. Instead of commenting, I went to the next mirror and put a hand to it’s frame. Nothing.

After checking a plethora more, she finally snapped, whirling to face me. Her face was flushed, hair wild from the amount of times she’d laced her fingers through her locks out of pure aggravation. “For fuck- there has to be _some_ way to Houdini out of this!”

I sighed for the millionth time that day. I didn’t have an answer for her, so I said nothing. My hand came to rest against yet another bronze frame. Again, no response.

“I mean, isn’t this the very definition of _insanity_?!” She was losing it. “Doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting _different...!_ ” she leaned on the frame of another mirror. The glass lit from within with a bright, shimmering light. “...results?” she breathed, with bulging eyes.

The mirror- _Eluvian_ -was active.

“Huh,” my companion simply said quietly. “Science is a lie.”

Once I managed to regain my voice I muttered, “We should probably see where it goes.”

“Hopefully back _home_ ,” she managed to say.

_Home for_ her _is Britain, by her accent, but home for me is the west coast of the US. What do we do if it takes us both to just one place?_

_We could figure it out. We’d have phones and planes. While we’re here, we’re trapped._

“Ladies first?” She threw me a cheeky, albeit tight grin.

I raised my eyebrows. “...what?” _Is she calling me more of a lady than her?_

She merely, gracefully, waved her arm in a gesture for me to go through the mirror, glancing between us with a meaningful look.

Shaking my head slightly, I reached a hand out to the glistening surface of the Eluvian. It rippled at my touch, making a strange chiming sound. “Okay, well… here goes,” I muttered.

“See you on the other side!” She sung with a friendly salute, a slight waver to her tune.

I stepped through.


End file.
